Power10 vs. Power11 for IBM i Shops in 2026: Power10 Sales End July 31, and the P05 Gap Just Closed
Should IBM i shops buy Power10 or wait for Power11?
As of this week, that question has mostly answered itself. IBM is withdrawing most Power10 models — the E1080, E1050, S1024, L1024, S1022, L1022, S1022s, and S1014 — from marketing on July 31, 2026, outside China and South Korea. At the same time, the reason small shops had for hesitating on Power11 just disappeared: the Power S1112, Power11's first entry system in IBM's lowest-cost P05 software tier, reached general availability on July 24, 2026 — a year after the rest of the Power11 lineup launched without one. If you need new Power hardware, Power11 is now the forward path for nearly every shop size, and the licensing-cost objection small IBM i shops had is gone.
At a glance
Key takeaways
Power10's sales window is closing July 31, 2026
Most Power10 models — E1080, E1050, S1024, L1024, S1022, L1022, S1022s, and S1014 — can no longer be ordered new after that date, except in China and South Korea (through July 30, 2027). It's a sales withdrawal, not a support withdrawal.
The Power11 P05 gap just closed
Power11 launched in July 2025 across the S1122, S1124, E1150, and E1180 — none in IBM's lowest P05 software tier. The Power S1112, Power11's first P05 system, reached general availability July 24, 2026.
The 'should we wait' question is now moot for most shops
If Power11's licensing tier gap was the reason to hold off, that reason is gone. If you need new hardware, Power11 is the practical default for nearly every shop size going forward.
Support continues regardless of what you buy
Existing Power10 systems keep running on their normal support schedule. This is about what you can order new, not what stops working.
Two Deadlines Colliding This Month
Two separate IBM Power announcements landed within nine days of each other this July, and together they settle a question IBM i shops — running the platform under its AS/400, iSeries, System i, or IBM i name — have been asking since Power11 launched a year ago: is it finally safe for a small shop to move to Power11, or should we buy one more round of Power10?
On July 15, 2026, IBM announced the Power S1112 — the entry-tier Power11 system small IBM i shops had been waiting for. It reached general availability July 24, 2026. Separately, IBM's Power10 hardware withdrawal notice — first reported in February 2026 — sets July 31, 2026 as the last day most Power10 models can be ordered new. Neither announcement alone would force a decision this week. Together, they do.
Power10's Marketing Withdrawal, July 31, 2026
Effective July 31, 2026, IBM is withdrawing the following Power10 models from marketing everywhere except China and South Korea (which can keep ordering through July 30, 2027): the Power E1080, Power E1050, Power S1024, Power L1024, Power S1022, Power L1022, Power S1022s, and Power S1014. After that date, none of these can be ordered as a new system outside those two markets.
Two clarifications matter here. First, this is a sales withdrawal, not a support withdrawal — it affects what you can order new, not what happens to hardware you already own. Existing Power10 systems keep running under their normal maintenance and support terms. Second, the Power S1012 Mini — Power10's smallest entry system — was not on the withdrawal list, so it remains orderable for now, pending its own eventual Power11 successor.
Practically, this means the window to buy new Power10 hardware — including the S1014, the model that carried Power10's entry-level P05 software tier option in its 4-core configuration — is one week from closing as of this guide's publish date. Anyone weighing a hardware refresh who assumed Power10 would remain purchasable indefinitely needs to revisit that assumption now.
The P05 Gap Power11 Launched With
Power11 became generally available on July 8, 2025 across four models: the S1122, S1124, E1150, and E1180. All four are legitimate, well-reviewed systems — but none of them qualified for P05, IBM's lowest IBM i software licensing tier. Software tier is assigned by a processor card's capacity rating (measured in Commercial Processing Workload, or CPW), not by generation, and Power11's launch lineup simply didn't include a card small enough to land in P05.
That mattered because P05 tier is where the smallest IBM i shops — running AS/400, iSeries, or System i workloads on modest entry hardware — get IBM's cheapest per-core software maintenance and licensing rates. A shop running a Power10 S1012 or an entry-configured S1014 in P05 tier that wanted to move to Power11 faced a real jump in software cost, entirely independent of the hardware price, just because no Power11 model fit the tier. For a year, the honest answer to "should we move to Power11" for the smallest shops was often "not yet."
The Power S1112: Power11's First P05 System
The Power S1112 closes that gap. It's a single-socket entry server available in a 2U rack chassis (machine type 9242-21B) or a tower chassis (9242-21T), offered with two processor card options: a 4-core card (feature EJMT) running a 3.6-4.0 GHz range, and a 10-core card (feature EJSV, activating 10 of the 16 cores on the Power11 chip) running 3.05-4.0 GHz. Both configurations qualify for IBM i's P05 software tier. Memory tops out at 256 GB total, with 64 GB available to an IBM i partition, and storage tops out at 12.8 TB total, with 6.4 TB available to IBM i after mirroring.
IBM positions the S1112 partly around on-premises AI inferencing, citing on-chip Matrix Math Acceleration for local AI workloads alongside roughly 2x the core performance of the Power9-era S914 and roughly 3x that of the Power8-era S814, with meaningfully better energy efficiency than the S914 it most directly replaces. Treat those figures as IBM's own marketing comparisons rather than a guarantee for your specific workload.
Availability is staggered by region: general availability was July 24, 2026 in the US, with Taiwan following September 14, 2026, and China and India following December 11, 2026. Confirm your region's actual ship date with IBM or your business partner before building a project timeline around it.
What Else Power11 Changes Versus Power10
The P05 gap and the sales-withdrawal timing are this month's news, but they sit on top of a real generational difference. Both Power10 and Power11 are built on an enhanced 7nm Samsung process — Power11 did not move to 5nm, trading density for higher sustained clock speeds and a new 2.5D chip-stacking packaging technique. IBM's platform-level additions in Power11 include quantum-safe cryptography built into the hardware, the Power Cyber Vault cyber-resiliency capability aimed at fast ransomware detection, a reserve-core design intended to cut planned downtime for firmware maintenance, DDR5 memory, and IBM-claimed gains in per-chip core density and energy efficiency over Power10. None of that is specific to small shops — it applies across the lineup, from the S1112 up to the E1180.
Both generations run IBM i 7.6 (Power10 needs firmware FW1060+, Power11 needs FW1110+), so the OS question doesn't force a generation choice by itself — see our IBM i 7.4 end-of-support guide for how that timeline interacts with hardware planning, and our Power9 end-of-support guide if you're still running Power9 today.
Model-by-Model Comparison
Entry-tier systems in the P05 software tier, compared directly:
| Option | Generation | Cores | Memory (IBM i max) | Storage (IBM i max) | Order status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1012 Mini (Power10) | 1, 4, or 8 cores | Up to 64 GB (P05 configurations) | Up to 3.2-6.4 TB depending on configuration | Not on the withdrawal list — still orderable | |
| S1014 (Power10, EPG0 card) | 4 cores | Configuration-dependent | Configuration-dependent | Withdrawn from marketing July 31, 2026 (except China/South Korea) | |
| S1112 (Power11) | 4 or 10 cores | Up to 64 GB | Up to 6.4 TB after mirroring | GA July 24, 2026 (US); staggered by region through December 2026 |
Broader lineup, by role:
| Option | Entry / edge | Cloud-native / mid-range | High-end scale-out | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Power10 | S1012 Mini, S1014 | S1022, S1022s | S1024 | E1050, E1080 |
| Power11 | S1112 | S1122 | S1124 | E1150, E1180 |
How to Decide
- 1
Confirm which software tier your workload actually needs
Check your current CPW usage against P05 versus higher tiers before assuming you need to move up — over-buying tier is a recurring, avoidable licensing cost.
- 2
Check whether your target model is on the withdrawal list
If you were planning to order an E1080, E1050, S1024, L1024, S1022, L1022, S1022s, or S1014, that window closes July 31, 2026 outside China and South Korea.
- 3
Verify the S1112's regional availability against your timeline
US availability started July 24, 2026; Taiwan, China, and India follow later in the year — confirm your actual ship date before committing a project schedule.
- 4
Get current quotes for both generations before deciding
Power10 pricing may move as inventory clears ahead of the withdrawal; Power11 pricing, including the just-launched S1112, was still settling as of this guide's publish date.
- 5
Line up the hardware decision with your OS timeline
If you're also facing the IBM i 7.4 end-of-support deadline or still running Power9, fold this hardware decision into that planning rather than treating them separately.
Risks and Common Mistakes
Use caution
Assuming Power11 still costs more to license for a small shop
That was true for a year, but the S1112 changes it. Don't rule out Power11 for a small IBM i shop without re-checking the P05 tier question against current models.
Use caution
Missing the July 31, 2026 Power10 order cutoff
If your plan depends on ordering an E1080, E1050, S1024, L1024, S1022, L1022, S1022s, or S1014, confirm the order — not just the quote — is placed before the withdrawal date.
Use caution
Assuming your region's S1112 ship date matches the US
General availability is staggered — US, then Taiwan, then China and India months later. A project timeline built on the US date will slip in other regions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is IBM discontinuing Power10 servers?
IBM is withdrawing most Power10 models from marketing — meaning they can no longer be ordered new — effective July 31, 2026. That covers the Power E1080, E1050, S1024, L1024, S1022, L1022, S1022s, and S1014. China and South Korea can keep ordering these models through July 30, 2027. The Power S1012 Mini was not on the withdrawal list. This is a sales withdrawal, not a support withdrawal — existing Power10 systems keep running and keep receiving standard support on IBM's usual schedule.
What is the IBM i P05 software tier, and why did it matter for Power11?
P05 is IBM's lowest-cost IBM i software licensing tier, assigned by a server's processor capacity rating rather than its generation. When Power11 launched in July 2025, every model — the S1122, S1124, E1150, and E1180 — landed in a higher tier than P05. That meant small IBM i shops that qualified for P05 pricing on Power10 (via the S1012 or the S1014's entry processor card) had no equivalent Power11 option and faced a real software licensing cost increase to move to the new generation.
What is the Power S1112, and when can I buy one?
The Power S1112 (announcement letter AD26-0122) is Power11's first P05-tier system — a single-socket entry server available as a 4-core or 10-core configuration, in either a 2U rack (machine type 9242-21B) or tower (9242-21T) chassis. IBM announced it July 15, 2026 and it reached general availability in the US on July 24, 2026. Other regions follow on a staggered schedule — Taiwan from September 14, 2026, and China and India from December 11, 2026 — so confirm your region's ship date before committing to a timeline.
Should I buy Power10 or Power11 right now?
For most new purchases, the practical window to buy new Power10 hardware is closing on July 31, 2026 outside China and South Korea — after that date, Power11 (or a used/refurbished Power10 through the secondary market) is essentially the only new-hardware path for most models. If you were holding off on Power11 specifically because of the P05 licensing gap, that reason is now gone. The remaining question is simply whether you need hardware now or can wait — not which generation to target.
Does Power11 run IBM i 7.6? What about Power10?
Both do. IBM i 7.6 requires Power10 (firmware FW1060 or later) or Power11 (FW1110 or later) — it is not supported on Power9 or earlier. Power10 also runs IBM i 7.4 and 7.5. See our IBM i 7.4 end-of-support guide for how the OS timeline interacts with this hardware decision.
What does Power11 actually add over Power10 beyond closing the P05 gap?
IBM's headline additions are quantum-safe cryptography built into the platform, the Power Cyber Vault cyber-resiliency feature aimed at fast ransomware detection, a reserve-core design intended to reduce planned downtime for maintenance, DDR5 memory, and claimed efficiency and per-chip core-count gains over Power10 — treat the specific performance multipliers as IBM's own figures and validate them against your workload rather than assuming they apply uniformly.
Sources
- IBM: Hardware Withdrawal — Selected Power10 Servers and Miscellaneous Features
- IT Jungle: IBM Starts Winding Down Power10 System Sales (February 2026)
- IT Jungle: The Power11 IBM i P05 Entry Machine Finally Arrives (July 2026)
- IBM Newsroom: IBM Launches New Power Systems and Software Built for Enterprises (July 15, 2026)
- IBM Newsroom: IBM Power11 Raises the Bar for Enterprise IT (July 2025)
- Verify current pricing, regional availability, and configuration details with IBM or your business partner
Weighing a Power10 or Power11 Purchase Right Now?
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